t out without a
boat for a long walk.

_June 13._--Since the water ran off, we have, of course, been attacked
by swamp fever. H. succumbed first, then Annie, Max next, and then I.
Luckily, the new Dr. Y. had brought quinine with him, and we took heroic
doses. Such fever never burned in my veins before or sapped strength so
rapidly, though probably the want of good food was a factor. The two or
three other professional men have left. Dr. Y. alone remains. The roads
now being dry enough, H. and Max started on horseback, in different
directions, to make an exhaustive search for food supplies. H. got back
this evening with no supplies.

_June 15._--Max got back to-day. He started right off again to cross the
lake and interview the planters on that side, for they had not suffered
from overflow.

_June 16._--Max got back this morning. H. and he were in the parlor
talking and examining maps together till dinner-time. When that was over
they laid the matter before us. To buy provisions had proved impossible.
The planters across the lake had decided to issue rations of corn-meal
and pease to the villagers whose men had all gone to war, but they
utterly refused to sell anything. "They told me," said Max, "'We will
not see your family starve, Mr. R.; but with such numbers of slaves and
the village poor to feed, we can spare nothing for sale.'" "Well, of
course," said H., "we do not purpose to stay here and live on charity
rations. We must leave the place at all hazards. We have studied out
every route and made inquiries everywhere we went. We shall have to go
down the Mississippi in an open boat as far as Fetler's Landing (on the
eastern bank). There we can cross by land and put the boat into Steele's
Bayou, pass thence to the Yazoo River, from there to Chickasaw Bayou,
into McNutt's Lake, and land near my uncle's in Warren County."

_June 20._--As soon as our intended departure was announced, we were
besieged by requests for all sorts of things wanted in every
family--pins, matches, gunpowder, and ink. One of the last cases H. and
Max had before the stay-law stopped legal business was the settlement of
an estate that included a country store. The heirs had paid in chattels
of the store. These had remained packed in the office. The main contents
of the cases were hardware; but we found treasure indeed--a keg of
powder, a case of matches, a paper of pins, a bottle of ink. Red ink is
now made out of pokeberries. Pins are made by